Eye - 02 November 2012

From seaside cinema to a melodious Quakeress

Cinema by the sea

Eye was delighted to hear that a Friend-founded community cinema project scooped a series of awards at a recent ceremony.

‘Screen-next-the-Sea’ in Wells-next-the-Sea won three certificates of commendation at last month’s BFFS Award Ceremonies. Two were for the project itself – one for publicity and marketing and the other for innovation. The third was for the ‘outstanding contribution’ of David Saunders, Norfolk Friend, founding member and first chairman of ‘Screen-next-the Sea’.

In 1997 David saw an example of community cinema on the Island of Hoy and put out feelers in his local monthly magazine to see if something similar could flourish in Wells-next-the-Sea.

Within a fortnight he had rounded up an enthusiastic committee of twelve and David and his team got to work on establishing a local film group. Using the Village Screen initiative to get started – and later with the help of grants from Wells Lions, Wells Carnival, O2 It’s Your Community, the Lottery and others – ‘Screen-next-the-Sea’ was born, initially with monthly film showings, which have since become twice monthly.

The scheme has been very popular, with one satisfied customer saying: ‘It’s a small cinema with a big heart, and it can only get better – it’s a delightful, intimate, friendly, enchanting cinema.’

David said: ‘…a lovely surprise but our success as a community cinema is really due to brilliant teamwork by a group of skillful, resourceful people, who have now brought the National Theatre and Bolshoi Ballet Live via Satellite, to Screen-next-the-Sea! What next?’

Quakers with a vengeance

The nuggets of Quaker literary mentions are not all sparkling, as Anne Adams reminded Eye this week.

She writes that Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, had ‘a rather jaundiced idea’ of the Friends of Nantucket Island, who he describes as ‘the most sanguinary of all sailors and whale hunters. They are fighting Quakers; they are Quakers with a vengeance’.

Anne highlights how ‘he also speculates on how they can refuse to kill humans, but shed “tuns upon tuns of leviathan gore”, and thinks that they have come to “the sage and sensible conclusion that a man’s religion is one thing, and this practical world quite another”.’

Job title of the year

Philip Barron, of Sussex East Area Meeting, got in touch to tickle our funny bones when he noticed:

‘On the back page of your 19 October issue, I was amused to see Quaker Social Action advertising for a “Knees Up Manager” for one of their projects. I’m sure that the successful applicant will oversee a valuable community development project, but that person’s proposed designation must surely be in the running for a “Job Title of the Year” award?’

A melodious Quakeress

Walt Whitman, the American poet, painted a lyrical picture of Quaker women.

John and Janie Cottis, of Farringdon Meeting, wrote to Eye after coming across a little gem during a WEA literature class:

‘In section 33 of the “Song of Myself”, a kind of love-song to the world, Whitman writes that he is: “…Pleased with the Quakeress as she puts off her bonnet and talks melodiously…”’

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